Fighter
by cloclomockingjay
Summary: Though not often noticed, the younger generation seem to be a big part of the 2nd Mass's survival. This story follows those very people, whether it's Hal fighting against the skitters with Tom, Lourdes helping the wounded, Maggie keeping Pope in line or any of the barely adults joining the struggle against the enemy they all count.
1. Chapter 1

_You'd think they'd be the first to crumble, or at the very least be the ones to hide while the more experienced in life are relied on to ensure everyone's survival. But no, the ones that have barely experienced life or left childhood are a big part of the 2__nd__ Massachusetts's survival. _

The 2nd Massachusetts had moved on for what seemed like the hundredth time, now stationed under one of the few still standing bridges just outside Richmond. As the sun was beginning to set many of the civilians –especially the young children- were starting to head off for a nights sleep. That was just the civilians though, most of the soldiers wouldn't be getting much sleep- at least not yet- especially the scouts.

Hal was one of those scouts. After tucking his younger brother Matt into bed and coming up with yet another excuse as to why he couldn't go with him Hal left the tent and headed to the medical bus to say goodbye to his father Tom. "Hey." He said as he spotted him sat in the driver's seat.

"Hey." Tom replied. "You heading out?"

"Yeah, Maggie and I have been joined with another scouting team. There have been more Mech sightings than usual this past week so Weaver's joined up groups as precaution."

"I'm glad, at least it will be safer for you."

Hal couldn't help rolling his eyes at his dad's over protectiveness. "We'll be fine either way. Anyway I got to go. See you."

"Ok, see you when you get back."

Hal turned to leave but heard his name being called behind him. He turned to see Dr Glass walking over from the back of the bus. "Hey Hal, I was just wondering what Weaver is sending you out for."

"Um whatever we can find; food; fuel; whatever we can get our hands on really. Why?"

"It's just that we're starting to run low on medical supplies and I was wondering if you could take a quick look for some out there, if its possible of course." Anne explained as she frowned at an unconscious soldier lying in the back.

"Absolutely." Hal replied. "What do you need?"

"Just the usually, antibiotics; bandages; anything you find would be helpful."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks."

Hal then left and headed for the edge of the 2nd Mass's perimeter where Maggie was waiting, along with the two other scouts they'd been joined with. They'd been joined with Jamie and Caylin. He had mixed opinions on the pair up, as he liked Caylin- he'd been on patrol with her a few times- but Jamie not so much.

Jamie was leaning on the side of the truck as Hal reached them. When he saw him approaching he straightened up and called. "Well finally, thought you were going to keep us waiting all night."

"You could have gone on your own if you wanted, I wouldn't have objected."

"C'mon you two we haven't even left the perimeter and already you're getting ready to argue." Caylin said as she tried not to smile.

Hal didn't understand how Caylin coped with spending so much time with Jamie who he thought had too much to say about everything and had his head in a not so sunny place. Caylin on the other hand was a more down to earth kind of person who he'd never heard judge anyone about anything.

Maggie pulled up her bike next to Caylin's. "She's right, just try to get along tonight. Besides, you two have the truck all to yourselves."

That was when Hal realised his bike wasn't there. "You're kidding right?"

"Nope, someone's got to drive the truck and since we got here first we bagged the bikes." Caylin laughed as she kicked started her bike and headed up the trail with Maggie behind her. Hal just sighed as he jumped into the driver's seat of the truck.

Hal drove west- following the girls up ahead- in silence while feeling slightly jealous as he saw Maggie and Caylin talking and laughing. It was ok for them, they actually liked each other. They drove on for at least half an hour, heading into a suburb on the Richmond border. At Maggie's signal he slowed the truck as the girls sped the bikes up to check if the streets ahead were clear. The silence dragged on until Jamie piped up. "Jesus Hal you are one depressing guy."

"Yeah your presence tends to do that to me." Hal replied bluntly.

"Alright, no need to get sarcastic."

"Are you of all people really going to talk to me about sarcasm?"

"Well-"

Jamie was cut of by the sound of the bike engines as they returned from the street ahead. Maggie pulled up next to Hal's window as Caylin kept watch ahead. "All the streets ahead seem clear although there was some almost fresh fire about five blocks away so we should keep our heads low."

"Any ideas where we're going to look for supplies?"

"Caylin and I actually had an idea while we were driving. We were thinking that when we look for fuel we always look in the big obvious places: warehouses; fuel stops and storage facilities. But we never look in the smaller places, like garages in the suburbs. Almost every house on the next street has a garage- some even look untouched- at least one must have a can of fuel or even an intact car we could drain."

Hal nodded his head slowly as he thought about the idea. "It's worth a try, any amount of fuel helps."

Maggie signalled to Caylin they were good to go as she replied to Hal. "Alright, look there's a small alleyway up ahead where you can park the truck so it's out of the way. We can search some of the houses ahead of there."

"Alright we get it." Jamie interrupted. "Can we just get this done now?"

Maggie pursed her lips to hold back a not so nice reply before driving back to Caylin and signalling for the truck to follow.

On the next street they parked up in the alley Maggie waved a hand towards. By the time Hal and Jamie had gotten out of the truck Maggie and Caylin were on their feet with their rifles at the ready and bags hung over their shoulders to throw whatever they might find in. When Hal and Jamie were ready the four of them headed towards the house closest to them just across the road. A window was smashed but other than that it looked untouched.

The house may have appeared empty but that didn't cause any of them to lose caution. They knew better than that. As the others held they rifles at the ready towards the door Hal kicked it open before stepping back just in case anything decided to greet them. Inside was almost pitch black- since the sun was now completely gone- so before entering they all grabbed their flashlights and held them above their rifles.

The flashlights lit up a hallway that was just as intact as the exterior. There was still even photos hanging from the wall of the family that once lived their. It was sometimes hard to look at things like that as it made them think of the fact that these people were more than likely dead.

Still cautious they quietly stepped in one after the other. They covered the three closed doors and kicked them open at the same time and just like they hallway the rooms were empty.

The four of them regrouped in the hall again. "Alright." Hal said as he pointed to Maggie and Caylin. "You two check out the garage and kitchen. Take whatever you can find. We'll check upstairs."

As the boys headed up the stairs the girls first went to the kitchen. As Maggie kept watch Caylin searched the cupboards. "There's not much here but not everything is gone. I'm guessing whoever lived here just grabbed what they could and left. It doesn't look like anyone's been here since."

"What have you got?"

"Um." Caylin paused as she dumped a few cans on the counter. "Beans, they would leave the one thing I'm sick of. A few cans of soup and... Some kidney beans. Hey do you think that Pope guy likes Mexican food? Maybe he could cook us up some burritos or something with these."

Maggie shook her head as she tried not to laugh. "Anything else?"

"Yep, a six pack of soda."

"We can't take that it will just slow us down and we don't need it."

"Yeah I know... one for the road?"

Maggie nodded with a smile as Caylin grabbed two from the pack and stuffed them in her jacket pockets. Once all the cans were bagged up they headed for the garage door as they heard Hal call them. "You two all good down there?"

"Yeah. What about you two?"

"All clear, we're coming down."

The garage was clear too and contained more look than the kitchen. Although there were no canisters filled with fuel there was a car with a half full tank, meaning all they had to do was drain the fuel using a canister and pump from the back of the truck.

As they waited Jamie tapped the side of the car. "A Chevrolet Cruze, good car, great bodywork. Such a shame to have to leave it behind."

"These days cars are only used for quick getaways and blockades. Who cares what they look like anymore?" Hal pointed out.

"That doesn't change the fact that it's a nice car." Jamie argued.

"I'd let you drive it back to camp but the fuel tanks kind of empty. Besides it wouldn't have such good bodywork with Mech bullets through it." Hal replied with heavy sarcasm.

Jamie took a step towards him in anger. "You know I'm getting just a little sick of your smart mouth Hal." His voice began to grow louder as he continued. "Just because your dad's the second in-"

Caylin's hand was suddenly covering his mouth with the index finger of her other hand in front of her lips. "Do you guys hear that?" She whispered.

They silenced and tried to listen for a moment and within a few seconds they all heard it. The eerie sound of a Mech heading their way. Without a word they held their guns at the ready and left the garage to head for the front door and window.

Just as they got there they were blinded by the light from the nearby Mech as it turned in their direction.


	2. Chapter 2

Swiftly, the four of them jumped away from the doorway and out of the Mech's light- hoping none of them had been seen. As she moved with Hal to kneel under the nearby window Caylin whispered. "Do you think it saw us?"

"Well it hasn't started firing at us yet." He replied. "Although that's not necessarily a good thing, could be sending skitters over."

As slowly as possible Caylin lifted the bottom of the half open curtains to take a look at what was going on outside. She could see the Mech standing in the middle of the road right next to the alley where they'd parked the truck. It's light still shone on the doorway just to her right where Maggie and Jamie were still taking cover.

"So?" Jamie asked Caylin as she dropped the curtain. "Any good news?"

"I can't see any skitters nearby but I don't think we are getting out of here without taking that thing down."

"Great, just great. How the hell are we going to do that without at least one of us getting killed? If you haven't noticed we are kind of boxed in." Jamie whispered back sharply.

Maggie shrugged behind him. "Distraction. We have to distract it while at least one of us gets out into the street where we can get a better shot."

After thinking for a moment Hal nodded in agreement. "She's right, two of us will have to shoot from the window to get its attention. Once the doors clear the other two will have to run for cover in the street and open fire."

Caylin quickly moved to stand by Jamie at the door. "We'll do that." She nodded at Maggie who returned the gesture before joining Hal.

Jamie didn't seem too happy about the plan but didn't object to it. Together by the door, Caylin and Jamie held their rifles ready and waited for Maggie and Hal to signal them to move. Seconds later- after a moment of preparation- the signal came as Maggie and Hal broke the window and opened fire on the mech. The solid sound of the specially made Mech bullets penetrating their targets armour hit their ears as the light began to move from the door. Seeing their chance the other two scouts ran into the street.

Jamie ran along the length of the house while wildly firing at the Mech before reaching the corner of the house and taking cover behind a metal bin. Caylin ran towards it while trying to aim for any place that would take the Mech down. Her bullets made contact but had little effect. The Mech was now desperately searching for a target- flashing its light and firing blind at the window then looking towards the side of the house where Jamie was covered. Unfortunately for Caylin, although all four of them were firing at the Mech she was the only one that it could see... which made her its primary target.

It turned away from the house and towards her as she stood right on the curb firing one of her last rounds as it advanced. As it got her in its sight its several scope lights appeared and began to zone in on her chest. Within seconds the scopes were locked in on her and the sound of it preparing to fire reached her ears.

She took a deep breath and without one thought dropped to the floor just as the Mech fired. She heard the whoosh as the bullet flew past as and struck the glass of the houses front yard. The bullet hadn't hit her but it had clipped her shoulder, she could feel her skin burning and the blood already beginning to seep through her shirt- but she knew she would be fine.

"Caylin!" She turned to towards the house as she heard her name being called and saw Hal looking frantically between her and the Mech. "Caylin run! Get out of there!"

She didn't need to be told again. As quickly as she could she got to her feet and began running down the middle of the road. The Mech began to follow her- she could hear it- and no matter how many times the others fired to get its attention its focus stayed on her.

She kept going as the Mech's bullets kept firing behind her- creeping closer each time. Fortunately for her the Mech was slower than usual- whoever had took a shot at one of its legs had done enough damage to slow its pace.

Caylin could hear the others still calling her, they'd left their cover and were now running behind trying to stop the Mech before it got her. Up ahead she spotted an abandoned car turned on its side in the middle of the road and saw it as her only chance as she couldn't outrun the Mech forever. Her pace quickened and soon she was just yards from her only available cover. Feeling that she was just moments from being hit she dived to the rear of the car and rolled behind it.

She caught her breath for a moment before looking through a gap in the car. The Mech was stood a few metres away and she knew it wouldn't be long before it fired again and would tear the car and her to pieces. She needed to think fast.

_This is it. _She thought to herself. _Sit here and die... or face it and very possibly die._

As she loaded up her last round she shrugged to herself. "It's now or never."

Getting back to her feet she marched with her rifle up and ready around the car until she was face to face with the Mech. As she held her ground she squeezed the trigger.

The bullets flew- some of which causing the Mech to stumble back as its armour earned more damage. Caylin's hope soon became short lived though, as soon the crack of the gun releasing its ammunition soon became a click as the magazine emptied.

Feeling that this was it she threw the rifle to the ground and held her breath as the Mech's scopes locked in on her once again...


End file.
